The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULL DIES SINE LINEA." TUESDAY, DECEMBER. 17, 1912. EMPTYING THE PRISONS.

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 December 1912, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULL DIES SINE LINEA." TUESDAY, DECEMBER. 17, 1912. EMPTYING THE PRISONS.

Accoi Dtxcj to recent London ipape.rs the .new methods that are being tried n the matter of erinuin-al punishment aro proving eminently successful. Practically unknown to the general piiblic, says one writer, there are actively at work at the present time ceirtain. svrtomatised methods which, it is hoped, will in course of o, few years reduce the number of habitual criminals to an almost negligible quantity, leaving the prison officers to deal only with the occasional serious offender and the professional criminal, neither of whom represents a, numerous class. Even in the last three years there has been a, decrease of 25,000 prisoners— a, decrease which has been provided by the serious criminal as well ;as the less serious and occasional offender. But in particular is the decrease noticeable among tho largo class which can be warned from crime, whoso criminal career is only

hope if they are not sent uneoessarily to prison and manufactured there into C habitual criminals. Put into statistical a form, the prisoners of the past year have shrunk to 439 per 100,000 of the & population, and that is the lowest per- : centage on record. To wihat may be i ascribed this satisfactory shrinkage in j the prison population, which, even. now, amounts on the average to 19,000 c evwy day of the year? The writer-in f qurition attributes it partly to tlie i pressure from every side of pluilantliropic agencies acting in a reasonable j ] manner, ibased on the lessons of a . lengthening experience. Secondly, to ; ■ the influence of education and the new ■ life and opportunity it opens to miany. Thirdly, to the steady, if (flow, sweeping away of slums, and the filtration of light and air and better (standards of living into the dark and desperate com j dition of those who have been herded together in a common state of social j abandonment, and, lastly and particularly, to the methods by which it ha* ( been sought to'rescue the chief recruit , of" tho criminal class—that boisterous and entirely undisciplined lad who has been born and bred under such conditions. The primary method which is being so successful is to save him from prison. It has at last -been seen tjiat n prison as no moral hospital. Rather is it now recognised that it is a criminal manufactory. If not the cradle of the criminal, it is, at least, a school o* crime. Of those it receives for the first time—often enough for the shocking offence of being an unruly youth—its influence brings back as many as eighty per cent.! Now the first steip was taken by the Probation of Offenders Act, and a long step that has proved to be. The experience at Home has ibeen r-imilar to ours in this, Dominion. Out of a yearly average of 10,000 tperesons between the ages of twelve and twentyfive years that were ad-mitted ■ ito "jHndibased to .appcofl to the better side that (? per cent, have behaved so badly as to necessitate their being called u/p by the court and sentenced for the original or some subsequent offence. Even more courageous and even more successful has been the result achieved 'by the Prevention of Crime Act, so far as it (lead's with what is called the juvenile"adult criminal.. Hero we have youths of from sixteen to twenty-one years of age 'who -(have proved themselves criminals, and, on the average, harve already bee.n convicted three times. The problem is to prevent these younig men and young women swelling the ranks of the haibitual criminal—their certain 'destination if irriprisiommeht is to remain the solo restricting influence in their lives. So the Borstal system came into being, and these young criminals 1 are taken and placed under restriction, but nio longer in prison. They are each brought into contact with officials of » exceptional character, who take a real personal interest in them, and who leave no legitimate opportunity unutilised to appeal to the- bette rsidc that exists in every one. Hard work is required, strict discipline is enforced, prompt obedience is demanded; but throughout it all there is present the senise ol friendly search for the (better element; and onco this is discovered, no trouble is spared to develop (it. - -Games, reading, lectures, free 'association, and all. manner of educative, privii leges follow; and as confideih.ee is deserved1 confidence is reposed. So that when the .Bomtol sentence of two o/r three years draws to an end, the Borstal lad is occupying posts where his own .right sense of responsibility and his own self-reliance are' continuously 'demanded and exhibited. And what is the result of this method ? The reports from the Borstal Institution show that so far ias the lads are concerned —the girls and young women are more difficult—<about 80 per cent, tare apparently reclaimed, and the reports of the Borstal Association, which deals with tho after-oaro of these young people, prove that 73 per cent, of those who have served a Borstal sentence are igoing on satisfactorily. This is the work, then, which is drying up the sources of the habitual .criminal class, and to -£nis is it mainly due that yean* iby year tho number of British prisoners is (decreasing, and tbait already suggestions are being made for another use for some of the prison establishments.